Monday, October 27, 2014

Limited Edition Blood Orange Jones Soda - Target: Cherry Hill, NJ

It's finally here! This Friday is Halloween! To celebrate, I'll be posting seasonal sweets and snacks. First up, some vampire-themed limited edition soda!

Last Halloween, Jones Soda released four different seasonal flavors: candy corn, caramel apple, blood orange and red licorice. I was able to buy and review the caramel apple and candy corn versions, but I missed out on the other two flavors. I was really hoping they would all return this year, but they didn't! Only blood orange and caramel apple were released for 2014, and now I am kicking myself that I didn't get the red licorice version when I had the chance. (Maybe next year?) At least I was able to grab a 4-pack of the blood orange to try.

I will never stop using this gif

The art for this years release seems to be the same as last year's. Each flavor represents a classic horror movie monster in a fun, sketchy, style. Last year I mentioned that the art reminded me a bit of Superjail, and I think that's still a pretty accurate reference. Jones Soda has always embraced the arts, so these festive and fun designs will not only quench your thirst, but they'll look great on your Halloween drink table.

It's a real pity that all four designs/flavors didn't return this year. If you want to see the Red Licorice flavor I missed out on, which features Frankenstein's Monster, check out this review by BevReview.

When I look closely at this years release I did notice a little something different (other than the change in font), this time the pull tab is colored. The Vampire cans feature a really cool purple tab and the zombie cans have a orange one, which isn't a huge change, but where else do you see purple and orange pull tabs? Those of you who make crafts and chainmail from pop tabs might want to look into this.

I popped the top and poured some soda into a glass to get a better look.

The liquid looks pink at first, due to all the carbonation, but as the soda settles it becomes a reddish-orange color. (Although it's only slightly redder than normal orange soda.) The scent is slightly tangier than normal orange soda, it kind of reminds me of orange soda mixed with Fresca (a grapefruit soda), but it doesn't smell dramatically different from other orange sodas that are available year round.

I took a sip, and the flavor is crisp and refreshing. This orange soda tastes sweet, a little zesty, and it has a fairly authentic finish. I'm pretty impressed. It isn't night and day different from the neon orange bottles on the shelves, but the flavoring of this soda seems a bit more...mature? If that makes sense. The orange flavoring is well balanced and I can detect a hint of real orange flavoring and citrus oils in the aftertaste. All-in-all, this was a really enjoyable soda, and I love the tiny size.

I think these are meant to be handed out to trick-or-treaters, but with you only getting four sodas per pack, this is a pretty expensive product to handout on the holiday. With that being said, I wouldn't recommend giving this out on Friday (I'm way to cheap frugal to suggest doing that), but they would make a nice favor for people at your Halloween party. Or they'd be interesting items to have on your drink table, and I bet the flavors would make interesting mixers for adult beverages. These sodas are Target exclusive, so go out and get them while you can. (Get it, can. Soda can.) I'm still holding out hope that Red Licorice will return next year so I can give it a try, but so far this is my favorite of the three flavors.